Devotional based on “Numb” by Linkin Park

Grab a pen and some paper and spend some time with God today.

Many of you might be familiar with Linkin Park. In 2003 they released Meteora. “Numb” was the most successful single from that CD, reaching #11 on The Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on both Mainstream and Modern Rock Charts. As you watch the video, circle the words in the lyrics that you think carry a negative feeling.

View the video at: http://youtu.be/kXYiU_JCYtU

Song Lyrics:

“Numb”
I’m tired of being what you want me to be
Feeling so faithless lost under the surface
Don’t know what you’re expecting of me
Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes
(Caught in the undertow just caught in the undertow)
Every step that I take is another mistake to you
(Caught in the undertow just caught in the undertow)

[Chorus]
I’ve become so numb I can’t feel you there
Become so tired so much more aware
I’m becoming this all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you

Can’t you see that you’re smothering me
Holding too tightly afraid to lose control
Cause everything that you thought I would be
Has fallen apart right in front of you
(Caught in the undertow just caught in the undertow)
Every step that I take is another mistake to you
(Caught in the undertow just caught in the undertow)
And every second I waste is more than I can take

[Chorus]

And I know
I may end up failing too
But I know
You were just like me with someone disappointed in you

[Chorus]
I’ve become so numb I can’t feel you there
Become so tired so much more aware
I’m becoming this all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you

[Chorus 2 (X2)]
I’ve become so numb I can’t feel you there
tired of being what you want me to be

Food for Thought:
Linkin Park does an incredible job of summing up the emotions so
many of us feel. While everyone may not feel numb today, I believe we have in the past, or we will in the future.  And even if that is not the case for you, I believe many of your friends feel this way right now. So today let’s take some time to discuss this video, and we’ll meet a woman from the Bible who I believe felt the same way.

What words did you circled from the lyrics that point to negative emotions.

What were some other emotions you think she was feeling?

Have you ever felt like the girl in that video? Have you ever felt as though every step you take is “another mistake” in someone else’s eyes?

If Linkin Park had made their video with you starring in it, what parts of your life would we see?

A lot of times negative things that happen in our lives (like the things you wrote down) cause us to become numb. We stop caring, we stop trying, we give up.

Let’s look at someone else who felt numb. The woman we are about to look at felt like a failure, she felt alone and rejected. Then she met Jesus and everything changed. Let’s see what happened.

John 4:5-18 says:
So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”  “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”  Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”  He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”  “I have no husband,” she replied.  Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

John tells us the time of day this meeting happened because women of that region and era typically went to the well in the early morning or in the evening. Why do you think she comes to the well at noon?

What else do we know about this woman from this passage?

According to the passage, who started the conversation?

How do you think that made the woman feel?

How do you think she felt when Jesus asked her to go get her husband?

What do we know about the girl in the video?

Besides being numb what are some other similarities between the girl in the video and the woman at the well?

Let’s see what happens next.

John 4:25-30 says:
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”  Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”  Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”  They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

Like the woman at the well, we can truly trust in Jesus’ ability to heal our numbness and give us a sense of love, acceptance, and value. What is one thing we can do this week to turn over the things on our cards to Jesus and receive His love and acceptance?

Let’s read the rest of the story. I love this part…it shows us that no matter where we have been or what we have done, God can use us if we begin to care.

John 4:39-42 says:
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

According to the passage what happened when the woman told her story?

Can you think of at least one friend who needs to hear about the acceptance of Jesus? Are you willing to tell them your story?

Let’s take a moment to pray specifically for that person.

Wrap Up:
Today we had a chance to watch a cool video and see how this modern “story” is very familiar to a story that happened 2000 years ago. Two women alone and rejected both had stopped caring and became numb. Both were desperately looking for something.

I wish we knew what happened to the girl in the video. Did she find love and acceptance when she ran into that church? Did she begin to get along with her mom? Did she find friends in school?
We just don’t know.

On the other hand, we do know that the woman at the well had a real encounter with Jesus and she found love and acceptance in Him.

We all have things in our lives that bring us down. Some are things that we do; some are things that have been done to us. Tonight we wrote down some of those things on cards. Tonight the same Jesus who offered acceptance and love to the woman at
the well–numb to her pain–offers it to us. The great thing is that just like the woman at the well, we don’t have to earn God’s forgiveness. The Bible tells us that the cure for numbness is simply putting our trust in Christ as our only hope of salvation. If you have never done that, I encourage you to do that tonight.



Todd Pearage Linkin Park - Numb [Online] Available http://www.thesource4ym.com/musicdiscussions/MusicDiscussions.aspx?id=5, June 26, 2007